Visual Arts

The Fringe Festival is once again proud to bring you the Fringiest visual arts that Kansas City has to offer. From painting, to photography to jewelry and more there will be something for everyone at this eclectic display. Come to our opening gala on July 12 from 2-5pm in the Union Station Grand Hall to meet the artists and enjoy local cuisine and entertainment.

Blue Fringe

The Fringe Festival has been an extravaganza of avante garde art in Kansas City for over a decade. For this 11th year on the Fringe we are proud to introduce Blue Fringe. Leave the kids at home because this art is for adult eyes only. No subject is taboo with the Fringe Festival, so come out and enjoy the riskier side of art! Blue Fringe will run July 19-24 at Vulcan’s Forge. Come to our opening gala July 19 from 2-5pm to meet our artists!

Fringe Prize

The Fringe is excited to bring back the Fringe Prize Invitational for its second year. Many artists enter, but only one can emerge victorious. Your votes decide who has created the next Mona Lisa or who will be the next Andy Warhol! Voting will begin July 12 and run through July 26. The public is invited to come vote for their favorite among the entries. Voting is free. The artist with the most votes wins our fabulous FringePrize worth over $500! Let your voice be heard. What defines “art” to you? What intrigues you about it? It promises to be a competition full of surprises, and we hope to hear your vote there!

Iron Artist

Come see the Fringiest artistic competition that Kansas City has to offer! Several contestants, one hour, a mystery box of art supplies. What will they create? Who decides the winner? You do of course. Whoever has the most votes at the end of an hour wins our fabulous prize and prestige as the 2015 Iron Artist! Tom Kessler, Andy Perkins, Ellen Kirk and Nicole Marie Green host this excit- ing event July 19 at 7pm in Union Station’s Grand Hall.

The Mannequin Project

This year the Fringe is proud to introduce our Mannequin Project! Our artists have completed several artistic projects in mannequin form and placed them at several of our theater venues. See if you can find them all and take in a show while you’re there!

Visual Arts Galleries

Union Station - Grand Hall

30 W Pershing Rd Kansas City, MO 64108

Vulcan's Forge - Blue Gallery

3936 Broadway Blvd Kansas City, MO 64111

Fringe 411 & Boutique

This year we are expanding our wearable visual arts pieces (found last year in the Lobby of Union Station's City Stage) and have added a 'Boutique' aspect to our store! When you come to pick up tickets you will now also be able to peruse the jewelry and clothes our wonder visual artists have to offer!

Sea Life

Maia Ades

Grand Hall

This is a three dimensional piece using discarded materials. It features formations and life forms that may or may not actually live in the sea.

The Nude Distress

Spenser Albertsen

Vulcan's Forge/Grand Hall

Spenser enjoys exploring the innate differences between the dynamic that illustrates the material push and shove between the material and immaterial. The highly sexualized, and the sexually sterile. “I’m trying to figure out something that is not only personal, but some- thing that is innately interesting to me, but something that is innately interesting to me, and somehow seems detached...”

More Than They Seem, Too

Garments that can be worn multiple ways – some upside down or inside out, some twisted and turned – making them into an entirely different look. These wearables feature hand- dyed and hand-spun yarns. www.thredhead.com

Brokenhearted

James Catron

Grand Hall

In this piece, the wounded heart, restored and patched by the healing grace of God, rises out of the flames of pain and condemnation. For anyone who has ever been brokenhearted, this piece whispers the promise of restoration.

Beyond the Surface

Christie Courville

Grand Hall

This collection of acrylic and mixed media pieces on canvas and wood board goes beyond the images we often portray to others, and looks deeper into the complexities that make us who we are. Sometimes it’s beautiful. Sometimes it’s dark. Sometimes it’s both.

Unique Wearable Art.

We use sterling silver and gold-filled wire to wrap semi-precious gemstones in a way to celebrate the character of the stone. We also use metal etching technique and patinas for beautiful necklaces, earrings and bracelets. We also have ear cuffs, zipper pulls, and wire rings which can be made custom while you wait. We love creating this wearable art and donate 10% of all sales to breast cancer research in hopes of making a difference.

In a Nutshell

Russell Criswell

Vulcan's Forge

The mystery of life, the physical act of love, hidden or revealed in a forest seed. Potential, creation, growth.

Preserved Plants as Art

Brigid Greene

Grand Hall

Framed wall art, plant material preserved in a scientific and reliable method reveals plants in a way we haven't seen before.

Jennifer Nelson

Jennifer Nelson

Grand Hall

Using color to catch the expressive mood of a living creature up close in an Asian inspired illustrative style, rise is a work done in ink and watercolor on Mulberry paper.

Boutique Jewelry and Clothes

Adrianne Rogers

Fringe 411

After getting a nickname from watching Herbie the Love Bug, Bullets by Bugs was established in 2013. Working with bullets was a choice that represents myself and in honor of the family. Each piece of jewelry is handcrafted and originally made from my garage. The jewelry is seen at many Ducks Unlimited events and shops in Lamar. From earrings to necklaces, etching and gems; I love to make jewelry sparkle and shine one bullet at a time.

Synesthesia

Heather Turner

Grand Hall

Synesthesia is a photographic exhibition utilizing images from several of Heather’s bodies of works. Synesthesia combines work inspired by sound where images were created that represent what the artist saw in her mind’s eye when she listened to a particular song. The other side of Synesthesia are images that utilized colored light sources on models allowing the artist to give her own color palette to each model.

Immaculate

Christopher Husk

Vulcan's Forge/Grand Hall

In the midst of current censorship, Immaculate intends to expose the ethereal beauty of the female body. The light in the photograph not only highlights the soft curves of the nude body, but obscures and hides, causing the figures to fade, and nearly disappear. A striking state- ment on censorship’s role in perpetuating puritanical ideals against women’s bodies.

Growth

Kathryne Husk

Vulcan's Forge/Grand Hall

Using iconography, the female form, and surreal elements in her oil paintings, Kathryne Husk intends to use her art to bridge the gap of understanding between the able-bodied commu- nity and persons with disabilities. While her art acts as therapy for her own disability, each piece in her series represents a specific aspect of disability, both from her own experience, and those of the Persons with Disabilities community.

Kryptic Art - Live Spray Paint Art

Lewis Jerred

Grand Hall

Kryptc Art is a Kansas City Street Artist who performs live Spray Paint Art, called Space Painting. Using just spray paint, poster board, and household materials Kryptc will paint a masterpiece in 5-15 minutes. You can watch a full painting start to finish right before your eyes!

A Surreal, Musical Atmosphere

Alex Krahenbuhl

Grand Hall

I use many printmaking mediums to create these pieces of work, mainly working with Mono- type, since this medium has the most freedom to apply ink and layering to create the depths of my works. Most of my subject matter is when I listen to music I develop these somewhat surreal spaces that all of the marks and all of the colors are all the notes and articulations that come from the music.

Katheryn Krouse Art

Katheryn Krouse

Grand Hall

I create playful urban scenes with rich colors and expressive brushwork. The landscape of downtown Kansas City offers a naturally beautiful composition. The layers of newspaper, glaze, and paint together form a subtle texture and depth. The result reveals a landscape, as well as the delicate process.

Nina Kulikov

Nina Kulikov

Grand Hall

My favorite subjects are people because they express many different things. Colors and shading help portray who the person is, their feelings and what may be happening to them. In my charcoal drawings, I focus on shading and contrast. Because of the enjoyment I get from this, many of my pieces are charcoal. I also like painting people from around the world and capturing their differences so people viewing my art can cherish them.

Droodles

Glenn Lewis

Grand Hall

These large canvases are two dimensional representations about the complexities of life. They deal with subject matter and with colors that are evocative of the passions of my life. The two pieces in this showing are the final product of a process that was started many years ago. It has been worked on both physically and mentally, through many mediums, for much of that time.

Paper Wings

Mei Li

Grand Hall

Crease, cut, crumple. Fold paper into a plane, and it will soar. Write until paper becomes story, and it will carry. Craft paper into greeting cards, and you can speak without ever saying a single word- just include your signature! Whether it is “hello,” “goodbye,” “I’m sorry,” or “I love you,” these pop-up cards and pieces of paper engineering impart your messages and stories to the world, and most importantly, to your recipients. meitamorphosis.jimdo.com

The Invention of Color

Maggie Stubs

Grand Hall/Vulcan's Forge

Expressive, colorful paintings that will capture your interest. The pieces in The Invention of Color play with wild movement and swirly lines. They are bursting with color, as if it is being invented before your eyes.

Nature / Nurture

Sandy Woodson

Grand Hall/Vulcan's Forge

For me nature has always been, “the place where they hide the bodies.” But on my last road trip I was determined to get the perfect nature shots and once I remembered I would have to be out in nature to get them, I took up my camera, screwed up my courage and went out in it.

Woodland Woman

Tricia Szasz

Grand Hall

Inspired by woman's deep relationship with Mother Earth, this oil on canvas brings to light natural beauty of all that is feminine. Our light, our strength, our flexibility. Artist Tricia Szasz brings the heady thump of bass to the beat of the earth's natural rhythm with Woodland Woman.